1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a glass holding device for mid-gates of vehicles, such as SUTs (sport utility trucks) having a passenger compartment and a cargo compartment partitioned by a mid-gate, and loading passengers in addition to hauling light freight, and, more particularly, to a glass holding device for such mid-gates designed to safely and easily house the glass in the gate body when laying down the mid-gate to unify the two compartments into a single compartment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been proposed and used in some vehicles, such as SUTs, having a passenger compartment and a cargo compartment in front and back of a mid-gate, respectively. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the mid-gate 100 of such a vehicle has a folding structure for allowing a user to partition or unify the passenger compartment and the cargo compartment as desired. The mid-gate 100 typically has a gate body 101 at its lower portion and a glass 102 at its upper portion. Since the mid-gate 100 is sometimes required to be laid on the floor of a vehicle to unify the passenger and cargo compartments into a single compartment, the mid-gate 100 is preferably designed such that it is transformed into a compact size.
In order to accomplish the above object, the mid-gate 100 according to an embodiment of the prior art is designed such that its glass 102 is slidably extended from or retracted into a glass reception space defined in the gate body 101 as shown in FIG. 3. In another embodiment of the prior art, the mid-gate 100 is designed such that the glass 102 is rotatably connected to the upper portion of the gate body 101 so as to be folded relative to the body 101 as shown in FIG. 4.
However, the conventional mid-gate 100 having the sliding structure of FIG. 3 has the following problems. That is, a substantial gap xe2x80x9cGxe2x80x9d must be formed between the gate body 101 and the glass 102 so as to allow a smooth sliding movement of the glass 102 relative to the gate body 101. Due to the gap xe2x80x9cGxe2x80x9d, the mid-gate 100 undesirably generates noise during a sliding movement of the glass 101 in the gate body 101, in addition to causing an easy breakage of the glass 102 when the glass 102 is subjected to an impact. The above mid-gate 100 also forces a user to forcibly draw the grass 102 upward from the gate body 101 when it is necessary to partition the passenger compartment from the cargo compartment. The mid-gate 100 is thus inconvenient to users.
The mid-gate 100 having the glass folding structure of FIG. 4 is problematic as follows. That is, the mid-gate 100 with the exposed and folded glass 102 must be rotated to partition or unify the passenger compartment and the cargo compartment, the glass 102 may be easily contaminated with impurities on its surfaces, or may be easily broken when it collides with a hard material.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art. An object of the present invention is to provide a glass holding device for mid-gates of vehicles, which is designed to safely and easily house a glass in a gate body when unifying a passenger compartment and a cargo compartment into a single compartment by laying down a mid-gate on the floor of a vehicle.
In order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a glass holding device for mid-gates of vehicles, comprising: a first hinge unit provided at the upper portion of a gate body for rotatably connecting the lower end of a glass to the upper portion of the gate body; a folding trim panel rotatably mounted at the lower end thereof to the lower portion of the gate body using a second hinge unit; and a panel fastening unit for fastening or releasing the trim panel to or from the gate body.